Background

Canadian families with children deserve to have access to high quality child care and early childhood education. Lack of child care spaces and high child care costs are putting many families in a desperate situation, especially in cases where the household is run by a single parent, or caregivers are balancing more than one job to make ends meet. A universal child care system should be a priority for the federal government. By guaranteeing access to quality child care, the federal government can choose to help all children get a fair start by providing the foundations of life long learning, while also supporting parents in their efforts to seek and maintain employment.

The Conservative government introduced the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) in 2006. The UCCB provides all families with $100 per month per child under the age of 6 years (before taxes). This federal benefit is provided to all families regardless of their income. While this benefit does assist in partially covering the cost of child care, it does nothing to address the shortage of child care spaces, especially quality child care.

In 2007, the Childcare Resource and Research Unit reported only 398,197 regulated child care spaces existed for children from 0 to 5 years in Canada. The report also showed that 2006 to 2007 had the smallest increase in the number of licensed child care spaces in many years. As the number of families with both parents working increases, it is likely more families will be seeking child care arrangements outside of the home. In 2005, 73% of mothers with children ages 3 to 5 years participated in the workforce, up from 68% in 1995.

While having more money in an individual family’s pocket is nice, choosing to pool our resources in order to create a universal child care system allows access to quality child care for all families. The federal government can choose to listen to the voices that are calling for a publicly funded national child care system, developed in partnership with the provincial governments, and with input from Canadian families. We can choose to elect a federal government that recognizes this need, and recognizes national child care as an opportunity to benefit the country.

Child Care: Key Points & Questions

Canadian families are struggling to find affordable, quality child care.

Even with decreasing numbers of children across the country, the number of full and
part-time centre-based child care spaces only provides coverage for 19.3% of Canada’s children under the age of six years.

Suggested Questions:
How do you think the federal government can best improve access to quality child care for families with children?

Do you support a national publicly funded universal child care system?

Sources

Childcare Resource and Research Unit. 2007. Child care space statistics 2007. http://childcarecanada.org/pubs/other/spaces/index.html(1 Sept. 2008).

For More Information:

Childcare Resource and Research Unit

Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada

Code Blue for Child Care